At SES NY last month, Microsoft’s Search Evangelist Jason Dailey compared the search industry to cola, saying like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, search features two major brands. But new evidence, just weeks after he uttered those words, further prove that Google is in a space all of its own – and SEO marketers should know Americans have made their taste in search clear.
A new survey from SurveyMonkey examined SEO assumptions – and biases – by presenting respondents with two sets of search results. One option was clearly labeled “Google” and the other “Bing.” The source then split 641 people up into two groups, and asked the first which set of results it preferred. An overwhelming majority chose Google’s offerings. No surprise there. But what caught the attention of most SEO content experts is what happened with the next group of participants. SurveyMonkey swapped the headers , putting Google logo above Bing results and vice versa, to see if respondents would change their minds. Respondents still chose Google-branded results even though they were actually gathered by Bing.
It’s clear that internet users prefer Google’s over Bing, no matter the results provided. Or perhaps the consistency of Google’s results thanks to Panda, Penguin and other content-focused algorithms has bred a consumer base that has overwhelming faith in Google SERPs. Either way, this is a sign PPC and SEO efforts could see the most return via Google. While it’s important for marketers to consider Bing in their content marketing strategies, they should put most of their attention on optimizing branded content for Google SERPs.
